


Royal Relations

by RobberBaroness



Category: Cinderella (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Epilogue, Gen, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-24 21:28:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3784876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobberBaroness/pseuds/RobberBaroness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Cinderella, who was no less good than beautiful, gave her two sisters lodgings in the palace, and that very same day matched them with two great lords of the court." - Charles Perrault</p>
            </blockquote>





	Royal Relations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hydrangea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hydrangea/gifts).



> Thank you to DesertVixen for beta work!

The Princess extended a long, gloved finger (the white silk covering her hard-earned calluses) and pointed to her stepmother.

“Escort that woman from this palace at once. If she ever attempts to return, you may consider her a trespasser and deal with her accordingly.”

‘That woman’ opened her mouth to protest, but quickly closed it again when she saw arguing would gain her nothing. Much as it would have pleased the Princess to see her stepmother dragged kicking and screaming and thrown bodily onto the street, the woman did what she could to maintain her dignity.

“Not you two,” she called out to her step-sisters. “You may visit if you wish.”

Lucette and Dominique looked at each other, then to their mother in the doorway, then back to the Princess. Was this a command? Would their mother expect them to defy it, or chastise them if they did not take this opportunity to ingratiate themselves with royalty?

Lucette’s mind filled with images of torture chambers her former step-sister might subject them to if they stayed. She had no doubt the Prince would obey her every request; she could still see him, enraptured as if under a spell, kneeling down before Elaina in her dirty clothes and covered in ashes, saying not to bother about the shoe- this was the girl he had danced with at the ball. She could still feel her heart sinking as royalty prostrated itself before a mere scullery maid and begged for her love.

Dominique, on the other hand, decided she would be a fool to turn down an invitation to dine at the palace. Wasn’t that what they’d wanted? Even if their mother was turned away, there was no sense in letting the evening go entirely to waste.

And so she stepped forward to accept Elaina’s invitation, and Lucette followed soon after. Better to take a chance and be scolded afterwards than to lose all future opportunities.

 

***

 

The sisters were ushered into a parlor- relatively small and private, but the palace surely had several larger ones saved for grander occasions. Lucette and Dominique sat down on chairs of fine wood and red velvet, and Elaina pulled over one for herself just like the others. She did not need a throne when her tiara spoke for itself.

“There was a time when I hated you with a passion”, Elaina said calmly. “That was what she wanted, after all. So long as I thought you were the enemy and not her, I could be counted on not to make too much trouble.”

“Then you don’t hate us anymore?” Lucette said before she had time to think about etiquette. Elaina did not seem to take it amiss.

“I don’t hate you. How could I? I don’t know you. All I know are the tools my stepmother used to hurt me. Without her driving you...well, who is to say that we could not be friends?”

In the days when Elaina cleaned house for them, she had always been perfectly polite, though her tone of voice could express exhaustion or anger. (She had not even been Elaina then, much less the Princess- Ella if she was lucky, Cinder-Ella if she was not.) Hearing her speak frankly was a novel experience for the sisters; Dominique did her best to read Elaina’s face for a lurking trap, but either she wasn’t as good at social manipulation as she thought or else her step-sister was being sincere.

“You are very kind,” said Lucette in a quiet voice. Dominique shot her a look; it wasn’t that she disagreed, but it still felt wrong to concede such a thing when their mother had been thrown out like a woman in disgrace. Elaina put out her hand, and Lucette was silent again.

“Let me be clear. I am making you an offer. If you want my friendship- something I asked you for many times in the past, and was always mocked for doing so- then you shall have it, so long as you are not under your mother’s control. You may stay at court, and if you should find husbands I shall happily consider them to be family as well- I shall even provide you with suitable dowries for relatives of royalty. But your mother is not part of my family, and never will be. If you are to live under her control, I cannot have anything to do with you.”

“Do you mean we can never see mother again?” Dominique exclaimed.

“No, although I’m sure she’ll try to tell you that’s what I meant.” There was a touch of venom in Elaina’s voice that they had never heard before, not even when she’d been throwing out her unwelcome guest. “You may love her, you may cherish her, you may write and visit as often as you like; all I ask is that you cease to live under her roof and be her pawns. If that is too much to ask, then we should trouble each other no further.”

Dominique looked at Lucette, and Lucette looked back at Dominique. When they had left the house to visit the palace, they had counted on their mother being the one to do all the talking, and she had counted on Elaina still feeling a sense of familial obligation to them all. With both of these factors removed, they were unprepared for negotiations.

Lucette thought of a royal dowry, of life at court, and of her mother looking upon her with the disgust and hatred she usually reserved for her stepdaughter. Dominique thought of a husband with a noble title, of living in a palace, and of being in debt to a woman she had mocked and tormented for years.

 _Be cruel_ , Dominique silently wished, _or else be all-forgiving_. _Order us to leave mother_ , Lucette silently prayed, _do not make it our choice_.

Elaina waited patiently for a response. She had waited nearly all her life to make this offer; she could wait as long as it took to have an answer.


End file.
